Flax seeds useless? page 2

[tom05]

haha thanks all for your posts, but i still dont get it..... some people are saying its terrible stuff, and other people love it. Maybe its one of those personal choice things, but i think in the end im going to chuck them having heard about the negative impacts of flax. oh well, at least they weren't expensive

[john_e_turner_ii]

I think flax is fine in moderation like anything else. It probably shouldn't be a regular staple of your diet. I think the seeds or the oil are great additions to my smoothies.

[Lynna]

I like to use flax meal in Rivvin's angry bread. Last weekend I made some of the bread and put butter and honey on it when it was hot and it was like eating a big fat buckwheat pancake. I only make it about once a week or less.

[Andtckrtoo]

Wow! The things you learn! I have thyroid nodules, and have consumed a fair amount of flax seeds in my life. Paleofan mentioned issues with flax seed and thyroids. I did Google. I was horrified. And I'm going to toss out the seeds I currently have. Thank you Paleofan.

I did want to mention that my doctor, one of the best known endocrinologists in the US, said that there were no direct causes between thyroid issues and diet. It's scary what doctor's don't know. I'd rather change the way I eat then toss a drug at a problem if it will help. Pills scare me.

[racingsnake]

I don't know much about flax seeds, but eating more than a few dozen every other week (like the number you might get wandering around and picking them off a plant) just doesn't sound right to me. Like other seeds, it's birdfood, no? No way I'd eat tons of them on a regular basis for the same reason I don't eat oil made from seeds.

[mm84321]

I eat seven cups of flax seed a day because Dr. Dean Ornish tells me to.

[Dr. Bork Bork]

i eat seven cups of flax seed a day because dr. Dean ornish tells me to.

lol

[DFH]

.

I did want to mention that my doctor, one of the best known endocrinologists in the US, said that there were no direct causes between thyroid issues and diet. It's scary what doctor's don't know. I'd rather change the way I eat then toss a drug at a problem if it will help. Pills scare me.

If that is the case, why is this endo so well known? I see an endo too, but the owner of the clinic, also well known (gets interviewed a lot) is very much into leading edge approaches, diet, the right supplements, and natural hormones instead of Big Pharma synthetics. If I had one tell me that diet didn't matter, I would find a new one.

[buck1s]

i wouldnt say that i dont like them. i would like to use them for something, but having read that they come with a lot of health risks, such as increase chance of prostate cancer, im not exactly sure its a good idea?

This prostate cancer fear got started in the 1990's and has since been contradicted by many studies, just one of which I'll link below. Soy also engenders this same fear by men but the research is currently showing a beneficial, if any, effect.

Flaxseed supplementation (not dietary fat restrict... [Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008] - PubMed result

Wow! The things you learn! I have thyroid nodules, and have consumed a fair amount of flax seeds in my life. Paleofan mentioned issues with flax seed and thyroids. I did Google. I was horrified. And I'm going to toss out the seeds I currently have. Thank you Paleofan.

I did want to mention that my doctor, one of the best known endocrinologists in the US, said that there were no direct causes between thyroid issues and diet. It's scary what doctor's don't know. I'd rather change the way I eat then toss a drug at a problem if it will help. Pills scare me.

You believe Google over your doctor? Anecdotal evidence over science? I rarely, if at all, eat flax seed, but the misinformation on this thread gives me pause about these forums. A quick search on pubmed.org turns up the study at the end of this post. However, I won't claim eating flax seeds will help prevent anything. And of course you should grind them at the moment you want to use them.

I'm kind of sorry that this is my first post, but I wonder how many who read these forums believe everything they read. Yes, please don't believe me either, but instead look to science instead of anecdotes.


Extraction of lignans from flaxseed and evaluation of their biological effects on breast cancer MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines.
Lehraiki A, Attoumbré J, Bienaimé C, Matifat F, Bensaddek L, Nava-Saucedo E, Fliniaux MA, Ouadid-Ahidouch H, Baltora-Rosset S.
Source

Biology of Plantes and Insects, EA 3900, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France.
Abstract

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in using flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum) in diet in order to improve nutritional and health status. Lignans are major components of flaxseed. Therefore an extraction procedure for lignans from flaxseed has been optimized. The influence of some parameters was investigated: first the preliminary extraction step with alcoholic solvent, and then the solvent polarity and pH of the extract. All these conditions affected the total lignan content, but the most critical variables were preliminary extraction and solvent polarity. The optimized procedure, consisting of a direct hydrolysis in hydrochloric acid (1 M) at 100 degrees C for 1 hour followed by an extraction with a mixture of ethyl acetate/hexane (90:10 vol/vol), was applied to 340 g of defatted flaxseed and resulted in the isolation of secoisolariciresinol and anhydrosecoisolariciresinol with a purity of 97% and 98%, respectively, as determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The ability of these two compounds and that of secoisolariciresinol diglucoside to modulate the growth of human breast cancer MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines was assessed. Our results show that lignans modulate development of breast cancer cells. The most intense effect was observed for anhydrosecoisolariciresinol, which significantly decreased cell growth at 50 and 100 microM.

[Digby]

The omega 3 vs 6 concern is what you are hearing. I use flax seed which I grind to make crackers, something eaten infrequently. Make a giant batch of crackers and freeze them. In moderation flax that is fresh and not rancid isn't likely to hurt you.